One way to illustrate part of this strange modern trap's nature is by way of contrast. Within a single type of lifestyle, it becomes difficult to spot the subtle gradients: the contrast is low. With two radically different lifestyles juxtaposed, the contrast becomes very high indeed, and a lifestyle nature which is likened to the air we breathe becomes visible in the process.
The contrast I am thinking of here is the radical differences between the traditional Hopi and modern industrial lifestyles. The Hopi elders were very wary of so much as accepting the conveniences of running water and electricity, as they were well aware of the material forces that underpinned their lifestyle.
Now what would accepting those conveniences entail? Of course with running water, water quality has to be managed somehow, and there must be some sort of infrastructure in place that keeps up water pressure and flows. Electricity also requires all sorts of generative infrastructure, which is tied up with manufacturing, heavy industry, and resource extraction, all of which require large investments from local, state, and federal governments, and the vast constellation of private business and their financial seeders, all of which intermingle and divide up obligation and the distribution of social resources.
So these conveniences necessitate constant interaction with this system in the form of taxes and fees, and the local household infrastructure itself must be maintained regularly, a maintenance that is impossible with local resources, skills, and knowledge, and so any household taking part in these material flows must also tap into the central currency, money in this case, to gain access to the maintenance and persistence of those flows.
It could be the case that all of these technologies and resources could be organized and managed collectively for the good of all, but today this certainly isn't the case. What the Hopi rightly fear is not merely the loss of traditional practices and customs, but their insertion into what can only be described as a vampiric social order which is constantly demanding more labor and privation on the part of its laborers and lower classes, so it can continuously expand and advance itself for the pleasure of its higher classes.
In so doing this, it requires an assimilation that breaks communities, traditions, and skills from local contexts, reinserting its individuals into divided and specialized labor roles in return for material convenience, and of course the permission not to be destroyed. This is all even after the previous centuries of genocide and dislocation, to be sure. To enter into such an assimilation entails such an enormous velocity: one becomes modern by way of sheer necessity, and it takes much energy to escape once it has begun.
This then is part of the nature of the trap. The industrial lifestyle, is so materially and spatially powerful, it is constantly extending itself, and to be entered into it, one's lifestyle is so radically transformed and fixed far into the future. Its power and potency have caused it to be virtually objectified, likened to the air we breathe.
